A Cinderella Story, Take Three
by gleekee12
Summary: Based off of the movie, Cinderella Story. Rachel meets Finn on a Julliard chat room and Finn still can't figure out who she is after they meet at the school dance. But when someone tells her secret, will their chance at happiness be ruined forever?
1. Modern Day Cinderella

"GOOD MORNING LIMA, OHIO! I'M YOUR HOST ROD REMINGTON AND IT'S 5:30 AM ON SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SECOND. IT'S TIME TO GET UP AND ENJOY THIS BEAUTIFUL THURSDAY MORNING!"

Rachel groaned, rolling over to shut off her alarm clock radio and stare up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that had been stuck to her ceiling since she first moved here. It had been 9 years since the accident, but she never had a day where she could wake up and think of something else before the painful memory hit her. She got up quietly and went to take a shower without waking up Brittany in the next room over. As she let the hot water wash away all her stress, she began to regret staying up so late the night before. She had even fallen asleep with her laptop still lying across her lap; something she was definitely not proud of. Stepping out of the shower, she wrapped a towel around herself and made her way back into her room to get dressed. She had at least a half an hour before she had to be at the bakery. She really hated getting up early for work because she could no longer continue her usual schedule of running on the treadmill before school, but Mrs. Pierce had been kind enough to take her in all these years, so it only seemed fair that Mrs. Pierce made her get a job so she could have money to spend on things she wanted… even though she had never made Brittany work a day in her life… she shook the thought from her head and quickly put on some make up before she grabbed her bag and headed out the door.

She parked her old car behind the bakery and quickly headed in through the back door. The bakery had stayed the same for as long as she could remember. With its adorable pink and cream walls and checkerboard tile floor, it had become a staple in her life, a place of comfort no matter what bad things were going on. She grabbed her apron and tied it around her waist as she spotted Mercedes decorating a batch of smiley face cookies in the icing corner of the kitchen.

"Hey Rach!" Mercedes greeted her enthusiastically as she paused from spreading yellow icing over the next cookie on the sheet.

"Hey, what are you doing here so early? You're making me feel like a slacker!" Rachel laughed as she pulled out some supplies from the icing cabinet and refrigerator and joined Mercedes in her decorating duties. Mercedes dropped her supplies and stared at Rachel as if she were going insane. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"RACHEL! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Homecoming is a WEEK away!" Mercedes gasped as if that should explain everything.

"So…?" Rachel was still had no idea how that was related in any way to Mercedes showing up to work an hour earlier than normal.

"I need MO-NEY. For a D-RESS," Mercedes explained as if Rachel were a five year old rather than the socially awkward girl she was.

"Well how was I supposed to know that?" Rachel was getting annoyed; Mercedes knew how Rachel refused to attend any social events other than the daily social event that was school.

Mercedes picked up her decorating supplies and began frosting the cookies once again. "Because" she said, not missing a beat, "you're going with me."

"NO I'M NOT!" Cried Rachel glaring at her best friend like she was out of her mind, "I've never attended a single dance in my life, why should I start now?"

"Because I said so, c'mon Rachel! I found the most ADORABLE dress; you'll just die when you see it! It's so… you!"

"What's THAT suppose to mean?"

"Oh don't try to change the subject, you're going even if I have to drag you by your knee socks!"

Rachel sighed. She didn't want to fight with Mercedes, in reality she was the one true friend Rachel had – besides Brittany, but Brittany was a bit loopy and they couldn't hang out at school because Brittany was popular and hung out with Quinn Fabray. The same Quinn Fabray who's one goal in her high school life seemed to be to utterly humiliate Rachel every chance she got. Rachel didn't want to lose Mercedes to the higher forces of evil too, so she tried a different approach to get out of going to the dance. "But, but, I don't even have a date!"

Mercedes quirked an eyebrow at her, "so no one's asked you? Not ONE person?"

Rachel looked at Mercedes, trying to analyze the look on her face. "No… no one's asked me," then she thought to herself, _except for him…_

"Ya' know Rach, you've always been a great actress, but only when you're playing other characters… I know."

"Kn-know what?" Rachel began to panic; she told Mercedes last month that she'd stopped talking to him, because Mercedes kept pressuring her into meeting him. But in all truthfulness she just enjoyed the IDEA of him, because deep down she knew that he could never be as good as she imagined in her head.

"You left your email open when I was at your house last week. You're still talking to him aren't you? No, don't answer that, I already know you are. Why would you lie to me about it?" Mercedes looked truly hurt, she clearly didn't understand why Rachel wanted her to just drop the subject.

"I'm sorry… you just kept bothering me about meeting him, and I'm just not ready…"

"Well he seems to be ready" she said with certainty.

Rachel panicked, "wh-what email did you read?"

"I think you know EXACTLY which email I read. C'mon Rachel! He wants to meet you. This is your chance to be happy… you know that's all I've ever wanted for you…" Mercedes looked at Rachel doing her best to radiate sadness, if it was going to take the guilt card to get Rachel to go then she would be glad to use it to her advantage.

"I can't Mercedes, I just can't! What if he doesn't like me? Or what if he is nothing like I imagined in my head? Or… or…"

"Rachel you'll never know unless you meet him…"

Rachel thought for a moment, and then asked, "Will you go with me? And you have to promise you'll get me out of there as soon as possible if he's creepy…"

"I promise!" Mercedes beamed, glad that she'd finally talked some sense into Rachel.

"Okay…" Rachel turned back to her decorating, but then a few minutes later she slowly began to realize what she'd just agreed to do, "wait, Mercedes, I can't!"

"Yes you can! And you will! Here's what will happen: you agree to meet him, today after school we'll go get that dress, and then you'll meet him at the dance! You can live in fear for your whole life Rach. Don't miss your opportunity to be happy"

"Fine… I hate you though," Rachel gave her a shaky smile and laughed a bit along with Mercedes as they nudged each other playfully and continued decorating.

Rachel pulled her car up to the school and found a spot to park her car in. She looked at the clock on her dashboard and saw that she still had 15 minutes before she had to get to class. She sighed and then pulled out her phone to reread the same email from last week. The same email she kept rereading and rereading even though she'd already turned him down.

_Dear Stargirl01,_

_We've been talking for months, but I still don't know who you are. Will you meet me at the dance this Saturday? I know you said you hate dances, but I thought maybe if we went together it wouldn't be so bad. _

_Let me know!_

_ -drummerdude12_

_PS- You know you want to ;) _

She sighed, Mercedes was right; she couldn't keep living in her fantasy anymore. She had to find out once and for all who this guy was. She glanced through her text messages and the guilt began clawing at her. She opened the most recent text and began scrolling through

_From: drummerdude12 at 7:15 am, September 22_

_-We don't have to meet if you don't want to. I didn't mean to scare you off. Please text me back. I miss talking to you! _

_From: drummerdude12 at 11:00pm, September 21_

_-Why haven't you talked to me all week? Did I do something wrong?_

_From: drummerdude12 at 7:32pm, September 20_

_-Pleeeeaseee meet me at the dance! _

_From: drummerdude12 at 9:08pm, September 19_

_-Why did the chicken cross the road?... To meet me at the dance! (Yeah I know that joke was lame, but whatever. Meet me! Please?)_

Rachel reread the messages at least 5 times in a row before she could come up with a response. She couldn't help cracking a smile at his lame jokes though as she tried to type in her reply.

_To: drummerdude12 at 7:38am, September 22_

_-Why did the chicken cross the road?... To say she's sorry and that she'll meet you at the dance on Saturday. _

She sat back preparing to wait a few minutes for the reply but was surprised when her phone beeped signaling a new text message in a record time.

_From: drummerdude12 at 7:39am, September 22_

_-Meet me in the middle of the dance floor at exactly 11:00. See you then!_

Rachel smiled at the message and just as she was about to put her phone away it beeped again.

_From: drummerdude12 at 7:39am, September 22_

_-Btw- I didn't know chickens could talk… or feel sorry ;) I'm glad they can do both._

She couldn't stop the smile that threatened to crack her face in half as she got out of her car. But of course, fate could never let her be happy for the slightest minute, because right when she turned away from her car she felt the ice-cold stab of a slushie in the face. She gasped at the cold and her face turned red from embarrassment as she tried to wipe her eyes clean of syrup and sugar.

"No keep that on, RuPaul, it makes the sight of your face easier to suffer through," Quinn sneered, receiving a round of giggles from the cheerios around her and a snicker from Karofsky and Puck.

"I hope you enjoyed your stay at the Karofsky day spa, but that Slushie facial is gonna cost ya'," Karofsky commented, laughing along with everyone else.

Rachel tried to ignore their comments as she grabbed a towel from the back of the car and did her best to wipe the slushie off her face and the front of her butterfly cardigan. Once she was done she grabbed her books and locked her car. When she looked up, she noticed that Finn hadn't been there to witness her slushie to the face since he was just walking up now to join hands with Quinn and talk with everyone in the group. _He must have just been off on a private mission to harass some other innocent student_, Rachel thought as she quickly walked away before another remark could be thrown her way.

She really hoped Mercedes was right about this meeting being the source of her happiness, because she sure could use some light in her life.

One thing was for sure, as long as her prince charming wasn't one of those jerks, she'd have nothing to worry about.


	2. Dressing the Part

Chapter 2: "Dressing the part"

"Rach get your cute butt out here! That dress is adorable," Mercedes shouted over the music that was blasting all over the store. It was a chic new boutique at the mall that Rachel had never heard of, but of course it was already Mercedes' favorite store.

"I don't know Mercedes… I don't think I can pull off the strapless… it's really uncomfortable," Rachel whined from behind the door.

"It can't be that bad Rachel, and besides you'll only have to wear it for a few hours. I think even you can deal with that.

"Fine I guess you're right… OH MY GOD!" Rachel gasped.

"What? What's wrong? You didn't rip the dress did you?" Mercedes began to panic; only Rachel could make a simple task of trying on a dress takes this long and be this dangerous.

"The price is outrageous! Why do I need to pay ninety dollars for some stupid dress that I'm only going to be wearing for a few hours – like you said!"

Mercedes sighed glad that nothing had happened to the dress, "It's not some stupid dress," Mercedes explained. "It's the dress you're going to meet your so-ul mate in." Mercedes couldn't stop the laugh that escaped her lips as Rachel peeked her little head out of the door and rolled her eyes dramatically.

"He is NOT my soul mate."

"Then why are you spending so much time worrying about how you're going to look in the strapless dress you'll wear when you meet him?"

Rachel gasped and stormed out of the dressing room. "You made me come and try this ridiculous thing on!"

Mercedes grinned because she'd finally gotten Rachel out of the dressing room so she could see her in her dress and it was gorgeous. It was a short strapless pink tube dress with a white and light pink flower pattern that crossed the bodice on a diaganol. "What are you talking about?" Mercedes exclaimed. "It's gorgeous! Lover boy won't know what hit him!"

Rachel paused and looked at herself in the 3 way mirror, "you really think so?" She couldn't help but to smile at the girl she saw in the reflection. The color pink of the dress compliment her fair skin and dark brown hair perfectly, and she knew for a fact that she had a pair of pink heels at home that would match the color perfectly.

"Definitely," Mercedes smiled at her. "You look like Cinderella in that dress."

Finn sighed and stared at the clock on his dashboard. It was 5:45. Quinn was suppose to be here fifteen minutes ago. Leave it to her to be late on the one day he had something important to talk to her about. Annoyed to be waiting so long, he decided to pull out his phone and check for any new messages, and, of course, there was one from _her._

_From: stargirl01 at 5:00pm, September 22_

_-So… I just realized something. How am I suppose to know it's you at the dance? I'm wearing a pink dress with a flower pattern on it, but I'm assuming you'll be wearing a suit like every other guy at the dance…_

He grinned, she was clearly one of those girls who tended to over plan for things, it tended to annoy him when Quinn did this, but when she did it, she planned everything for him. It was a nice change that this girl wasn't telling him what to do. She just wanted to know what he was doing. Not being able to resist the chance to mess with her, he quickly responded.

_To: stargirl01 at 5:46pm, September 22_

_-No worries, my suit's dirty so I was just going to wear my footsie pajamas._

He waited for her response while he continued to look out the window for Quinn, who still hadn't shown up.

_From: stargirl01 at 5:48pm, September 22_

_-Hahaha. You're sooo funny. :P Seriously! I don't want to just walk up to a bunch of random guys on the dance floor and ask them if they're "drummerdude12"!_

_To: stargirl01 at 5:49pm, September 22_

_-Well I can't tell you my name because that would ruin the surprise. Wouldn't you agree? But I am wearing a purple tie to the dance, if that helps._

_From: stargirl01 at 5:50pm, September 22_

_-Ooh purple, how very masculine of you _

Finn sent his last message and looked up just in time to see Quinn walking towards his car, about to open the passenger side door.

"Hey," she said quickly before she immediately jumped into their plans for the homecoming dance. "So I got a dress for the dance last night. It's light blue. You'll have to get a tie that matches so we don't look tacky, and please get me a corsage that matches too. I don't want it to distract people from how great my dress is. Also, where do you want to go out to dinner before the dance? I was thinking maybe breadsticks or -"

"Quinn wait!" Finn quickly interrupted, "there's something I need to talk to you about," he began cautiously. He knew how pissed she could get and was afraid for his and his car's safety.

"Wait? Wait for what, Finn? Homecoming is in two days. We should have started planning for this weeks ago."

"Well…" he began still unsure of how he could best word this without making her set his entire car on fire. "I don't think we should go to the dance together."

"What are you talking about, Finn? We're both nominated for homecoming court so we have to go."

"No, you don't understand," Finn was getting more nervous by the second. "I mean I'm still going, and you're still going, but I don't think we should go _together_," Finn put an emphasis on "together" hoping it would get his point across in the nicest way possible.

Clearly it didn't, because Quinn's jaw dropped open in shock and then a split second later closed into a mean grimace that was accompanied by a glare that could turn anyone to stone. "WHAT?" Quinn gritted through her teeth. "Are you breaking up with me?"

"I just don't think it's going to work out between you and me; we're too different. We can still be…" Finn began.

"DON'T say the word friends," Quinn finished for him. "This isn't happening. You're just confused; yeah, that's it! Here's what'll happen: I'll over look this little lapse in judgment you're having and I'll meet you at the dance on Saturday. Ok?" And with that she got out of his car and quickly walked away.

Finn sighed and watched her go. He'd tried many times before to end things with her, but she just could never take no for an answer, and eventually he stopped trying. But this time it was different. There was someone else – someone who understood him like he knew Quinn never could or would – who he wanted to be with. In all honesty, he felt like he knew her better than anyone else too.

So why did it matter that he didn't know her name or what she looked like? Those things aren't what's important. Looks don't matter…right?

Tina walked into the large ballroom at the local hotel where this year's homecoming dance was going to be held. She was surprised when she noticed that the decorations had less of an underwater theme and more of a classic black and white look. She quickly jotted down some notes and took a few pictures. When she heard the sound of quickly approaching footsteps, she turned around just in time to see two members of student council walk up to her with matching looks of panic on their faces.

"Thank you so much for coming at such short notice, Tina!" Artie exclaimed. "As you can see it's not an underwater theme this year."

"Yeah I noticed that," Tina said as she hit record on her small tape recorder, "what happened?"

"Well," he began nervously. "The decoration company got our order mixed up with another school in Michigan's order. Ironically, their school name was also 'McKinley High School'. So now we're stuck with their lame black and white color scheme while they're partying it up with our mermaids and fish decorations."

Then Lauren added more information to the story, "and that's why we called you here. We want you to post some information on what happened to the theme and a few 'sneak peak' pictures of the dance to make it seem cool so that the entire student body doesn't hate us!" Lauren and Artie exchanged a terrified look before they turned back to Tina.

"Well you called the right person," Tina grinned. Tina was the self proclaimed "gossip queen" of McKinley High. She created the most read online blog at McKinley. She created two sections of it as well; one for her and her alone, where she could post the newest most shocking stories, and another for students to post their own gossip news. Although, no one had ever beaten her to a story and that half of the blog was hardly ever posted in – except of course by anonymous students posting completely ridiculous and made up rumors that were quickly deleted by Tina herself. Since it was her senior year, she'd already had 3 successful years of the blog and by now people just called her whenever they had big news. Tina looked around the ballroom a bit more, and realized that without a good theme this dance was going to blow. Who wants to go to a dance with a theme based on two colors? Certainly not her. No one would want to show their face at a dance like that. Wait! "I know exactly what you need to do, and it won't cost you anything. So don't worry about your budget." Artie and Lauren sighed in relief as they looked at her expectantly to here her great idea. She didn't disappoint. "We'll have a masquerade ball. It's elegant and the crazy masks that some of the students will definitely wear will pop against the dull décor."

"Sounds perfect!" Lauren applauded. Tina blushed, thanked them for giving her a great story, and promised to post the information on her blog as soon as she got home.

As she walked out of the ballroom, she heard quietly squeaking wheels behind her and turned around. "Oh hey Artie! Did you forget something?"

Artie looked up at her nervously, "Actually I was wondering if you, um, wanted to go to the, uh, dance…. With me?"

Tina's eyes popped open in shock, "Artie, I'm flattered, but I have a boyfriend. I'm sort of going with him…"

"Oh…" Artie looked down dejectedly.

"But hey," Tina began grabbing his attention. "If this dance is as big a hit as I know it will be, you'll find your Cinderella there for sure!"


	3. The Fairy Godmother of Dances?

**One quick authors note: I'd like to apologize to anyone who dislikes the text message conversation portion of my stories. I'm not going to change it because I have no idea how else to write it, but I hope it's not too irritating!**

**Also, this chapter is just the blog Tina was asked to post. Nothing more. The story itself will continue in the next chapter!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Special thanks to my buddy, Finchelfanforeverandever, the only person I know who is reading this story ;)**

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><p>Chapter 3: "Tina Cohen Chang: Fairy godmother of dances?"<p>

Hey McKinley freshies, sophs, juniors, and seniors!

I'm sure you've all been looking forward to the dance this Saturday, and I'm terribly sorry to tell you all… it's been cancelled. The ballroom got double booked and we got kicked out. Sorry to all the seniors who's last chance at homecoming is over. I wish I had better news, but not all gossip is what you want to hear.

Bye loves! 3

JUST KIDDING! September fools day anyone? The truth is, yes I do have news about the dance which may not be the best news ever, but as I've just proven, it can't be the worst. So to all you complainers: knock it off! 'kay? Thanks!

Alright everyone, brace yourselves, put away your homework, stop your studying, turn off your tv, and listen up! Today I went over to the ballroom to check out the preparations for the dance. (Shout out to the student council members who gave me a sneak preview of the decorations!) The decorations I saw were NOT underwater themed. That's right, our theme has been compromised! By who you might ask? NOT, our lovely student council execs, but a school in southern Michigan by the name of… wait for it… McKinley High. According to our student council members, the decoration company mixed our orders so we got stuck with their decorations. Yes, I do mean STUCK with. The decoration theme is "black and white" which is definitely not the most exciting choice, but – hold your complaints – that's why I'm here to help. With permission from the student council, I've single-handedly saved the dance from the dull-pocalypse of 2011. YOUR WELCOME. So, what, might you ask, is this new theme? Well, girls grab your glue guns and glitter and guys grab your football facepaint and get ready…

I'm proud to announce that this year's homecoming theme is… MASQUERADE!

So c'mon guys, lets get some crazy headdresses, masks, and hats and put some colorful decorations into that black and white ballroom!

Xoxo,

TCC

ONE LAST SHOUT OUT:

To everyone going stag, just remember, when you're at a masquerade dance, you can be whoever you want and meet whoever you want. So keep your eyes open for that prince charming, knight in shining armor, or damsel in distress, but watch out for evil kings, dragons, step-mothers, and femme fatals. ;)


	4. The Evil Stepmother

**Hey Everyone! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a few days! I'd also like to apologize for that cheap chapter last week. I felt bad not writing another chapter so I thought I'd squeeze that in.**

**This actually started out as this chapter, but when I wasn't going to finish I thought I'd do the second scene as a replacement. THEN, I realized I couldn't do that scene without this one so here it is.**

**Also - sorry if some of the text message dates/times are a bit screwed up, I kind of forgot where I was in the story. I'm 90% sure that this chapter takes place the same day, Thursday, late at night.**

**THANKS FOR READING *:D**

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><p>Chapter 4: "The Evil Stepmother"<p>

Rachel stared at her computer screen in shock. Tina's latest post had left her in shock. This dance had been the one place where she was willing to meet drummerdude12 in person. Now that the dance was a masquerade, she still wouldn't find out who he was. She had to admit that although she didn't want to go through with it in the beginning, she was dying to meet him. The truth is, she'd always wanted to know who he was. How could a guy as funny and caring as him have gone past her radar? They went to the same school for goodness sake! Maybe he was in the theatre program at school and she'd just never met him. After all, she only joined theatre her freshman year as an attempt to find a "clique" and stop getting picked on by Quinn and her brainless cheerio followers.

On the first day of school Rachel had been looking for a table to sit at during her lunch hour, and coincidentally, Quinn had the same lunch period as her. As Rachel carried her plate of salad covered in Raspberry vinaigrette though the lunchroom she found a seat at one of the tables in the back corner of the cafeteria. The table was empty so she presumed it was a safe, out of the way, place to sit for a shy, outcast like her. Unfortunately, she was mistaken. As she continued to eat her salad and read the book she'd been assigned in English class, a thin girl with a shiny blonde pony tail and a red cheerleading uniform came to stand directly in front of her on the opposite side of the table. The girl cleared her throat loud enough to get Rachel's attention, and when she did Rachel looked up and realized that the entire table had been filled with other girls wearing similar uniforms and buff guys wearing letterman jackets. They al snickered at Rachel's shocked and embarrassed expression when she saw them all.

"You're in my seat," Quinn said matter-of-factly as she glared down at Rachel with her cold, ice blue eyes. Rachel didn't want to cause a scene on her first day so she quickly mumbled an apology to the blonde and grabbed her stuff to leave. Fate clearly wasn't in her favor that day, because when she got up out of the chair and began leaving the table, her bag strap caught on the metal of the table. When she took another step forward the strap jerked her back sending the salad flying at her face, coating it with vinaigrette and ripping the strap of her bag. Her supplies scattered across the floor as she tried to wipe off the salad dressing from her face. She dropped to her knees to pick up her supplies as the jocks at the table continued to laugh and mock her. By now Quinn had sat down and started a conversation with the girl next to her, whom Rachel then realized was Brittany. Brittany sent her looks of sympathy as Quinn continued on in her story.

Just when Rachel thought the humiliation couldn't get any worse, two more jock-heads approached the table, Noah Puckerman and Finn Hudson, both of them carrying Big Gulp slushies.

Rachel never forgot the feeling of those ice-cold slushies dripping down her face and body as she shook with humiliation. This was mainly because that same group of kids felt the need to remind her of it on a weekly basis.

So, that year when auditions for that fall's musical began, Rachel quickly signed up in an attempt to gain some respect and be left alone. Unfortunately, they hated all the kids in the theatre program, and because Rachel had gotten the lead in the musical, Cabaret, she became their number one target to slushie. They were ruthless; Rachel got slushied almost every day for three months that year. After that she quit the theatre program all together, and had instead chosen to act in the community theatre where none of the kids from bothered to go to. So, it made sense that she may not have met drummerdude12, even if they went to the same high school and were both interested in the arts, because he could have chosen his path sophomore year, after she had quit.

Rachel didn't quite understand how that could be entirely true though. She knew for a fact that her choice of careers – Broadway, music, performing – hadn't been something that she just realize one night before she fell asleep. She had been born to perform. She couldn't remember a time when she ever wanted to do something else. So how could this boy have decided one night, "Oh, I think I'll be a performer". It wasn't possible, especially not at such a late age. So if this were the case he had probably jumped at the chance to join the theatre program at the beginning of his high school experience. This still didn't make any sense though, because Rachel had never met anyone her freshman year in theatre that had this guy's personality. She only knew 3 drummers in theatre, all of whom were egotistical, ignorant, and womanizers. They were the only people in the theatre program, besides the guitarists, that weren't constantly ridiculed. In fact, they were somewhat popular – being invited to parties and events to perform in their bands. If only her mother had encouraged her to join a rock group…

Thinking about her mother made her eyes fill with tears; tears that she quickly wiped away with a tissue and then pushed the memories to the back of her mind. As if on cue, or as if she sensed Rachel's emotional turmoil, Mrs. Pierce walked into Rachel's bedroom and sat on the edge of her bed. Rachel turned around in her desk chair to face her.

"Are you alright Rachel?" Mrs. Pierce asked, with what Rachel hoped was concern. Mrs. Pierce had been Rachel's mom's best friend and after the accident had been kind enough to take her in, but she had never been very caring towards Rachel. It was more like she simply tolerated Rachel's presence.

"I'm fine, Mrs. Pierce," Rachel answered. She definitely did not want to have a heart to heart with this emotionless wall of a person.

"Alright then," Mrs. Pierce didn't seem to want to have that conversation either, and continued on with what she came to talk about. "So Rachel, Brittany was supposed to babysit for the Fabray's on Saturday, but she's going to that dance at school. I know you never go to those things like my Brit does, so I volunteered you to fill in for her. They're willing to pay you ten dollars an hour and I know how much you need the money," Mrs. Pierce said. Rachel thought she was just trying to be thoughtful, but she couldn't help but hear a tad bit of snootiness in her voice.

"Well it's just I'm meeting someone at the dance… I already made plans," Rachel looked at Mrs. Pierce with as much pleading in her eyes as she dared.

"Well I already told them you'd be delighted to," she answered coldly, getting up off Rachel's bed. "If you want to make plans to go to these school functions, you need to tell me ahead of time. I'm sorry, Rachel, you can't go," She quickly walked out of the room leaving Rachel sitting there with her mouth dropped open and her eyes misted over with tears. This was not her fairy tale ending.

Tina did her best to keep her focus on the task at hand. She wanted to make her blog perfect, because it was definitely one of the biggest stories she had gotten all year. However, Mike was lying next to her on her bed and throughout her entire time writing, he had felt the need to draw light little designs along her arm and side. It took all her will power to finish the blog and reread it. She did however let herself get distracted in between spell checks; she loved running her hands along his well defined abs… but come on, who wouldn't?

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><p>"Are you done yet?" Mike asked for the twentieth time, giving Tina his best puppy dog look in another attempt to get her away from her computer and back into his arms.<p>

"Al-most…. FINISHED! I'M FINISHED!" Tina smiled broadly as she clicked "Post" and quickly shut her laptop. She turned to look at him as he grabbed her around the waste and pulled her closer to him.

Mike grinned as Tina eagerly began kissing him. After a few moments of the burning sensation, he began to lose himself in the kiss and didn't notice at first when Tina's hands drifted down from his shoulders, over his chest and down his stomach. He did notice, however, when her hands gripped the hem of his shirt and began pushing it up. He pulled away from the kiss for a second to snicker at her, "You just can't get enough can you." She hummed in agreement as she ran her fingers in patterns around each of his abs. Mike slowly leaned back to rest against the pillows on the bed and Tina eagerly leaned down to join him. As she began to kiss him again, he took it as an opportunity. Grabbing her by the waist, he flipped her over and layed on top of her slowly letting his hands roam her waist and up and down her sides.

They continued like this, kissing each other casually, hands slowly roaming each other. That is until Finn burst through Tina's bedroom door, "Is this true?" he yelled, holding up his cell phone is his hand.

"AHH!" Tina and Mike screamed in unison jumping away from each other on the bed; Mike grabbing his shirt from the floor and putting it on.

"AHH!" Finn screamed back, covering his eyes from seeing anything he shouldn't.

Tina sighed, "It's fine Finn, you can open your eyes."

"Are you sure? You're both decent?" He asked cautiously.

"Yeah it's fine. Open your eyes," she said. Finn could be so overdramatic sometimes. "Anyway what were you asking? What did you want to know was true or not?" She asked.

"This blog! Did you seriously make the dance a masquerade?" He asked, face turning red from anger.

"Yeah, what's the big deal? Maybe now since no one will be able to recognize each other, we'll be able to make it through the whole dance without some poor kid getting picked on by your girlfriend and her jerky friends," Tina growled. Mike patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"What girlfriend?" Finn asked, distracted, reaching for her laptop to read the comments already beginning to pop up under her latest breaking news story.

"Quinn. Your girlfriend," Tina stated, looking at him oddly.

"Oh right… we sort of broke up today," Finn said.

"Define 'sort of'," Tina said as she sat up in bed, followed by Mike who quickly wrapped his arm around her waist as she leaned in to rest her head on his shoulder.

"I broke up with her," Finn stated flatly.

"Why would you do that?"

"No reason," Finn said, his eyes shifting nervously from Tina to Mike to the computer screen to Tina and then back to Mike.

"Nuh uh," Tina gasped, lifting her head up from Mike's shoulder. "You're not saying that you're going to meet that girl are you."

"What girl?" Mike asked. Tina and Finn ignored him.

"Come on Tina its no big deal. She goes to our school! It's not like she's some crazy online stalker.

"How do you know?" Tina yelled. Sometimes Finn could be so stupid and irresponsible.

"Who's a stalker?" Mike asked. Tina and Finn ignored him.

"Well if she is, then she won't be able to get into the dance now will she? And besides what does it matter? Now that you've made the dance a masquerade, how am I even supposed to tell who she is? She was worried about this too, and didn't talk to me for a week. I know she's worried about what I'll say when I find out who she is. You think that now that she can disguise herself and choose not to tell me who she is, she wont take that opportunity?" Finn explained. He had been looking forward to finding out exactly who this girl was. He honestly felt that if there were the perfect girl out there somewhere, just for him, like a soul mate, stargirl01 would definitely be his. The only problem was when he thought about her all he saw was his phone screen staring back at him with her username. He had no experiences or memories with her besides the texts the sent back and forth on a daily basis. He considered himself to be more interested in a girl's personality rather than her looks, but he was still a teenage boy and he was also secretly worried that he'd meet her and his opinion of her would suddenly change by how she looked. It didn't matter anymore though, because he definitely wouldn't be finding out who she was anytime soon.

"Oh come on, Finn, you're being overdramatic. If she already agreed to it, I'm sure she'll tell you who she is. Honestly, what could she have to hide?"

"What could who have to hide?" Mike asked. Tina and Finn ignored him.

"Just text her and ask her! So you know once and for all if she'll tell you."

Finn glared at Tina for a second, and then relented, "Fine".

Finn sat down on Tina's desk chair and quickly typed a message.

_ To: stargirl01 9:00pm, September 22_

_ -Did you read Tina's latest blog?_

A few minutes later, Finn got a response.

_ From: stargirl01 9:03, September 22_

_ -Yeah I saw it not too long ago. I meant to talk to you about that actually… I don't know if this is such a good idea. I have to fill in for my friend babysitting that night._

Finn stared at the screen in shock and couldn't stop the sinking feeling in his heart as he reread the message a fifth time – just to make sure he hadn't suddenly developed dyslexia and completely misread it. He sighed and looked up at Tina, "She's not coming. She has to _babysit_," he emphasized the last word and dropped his head down.

Tina didn't respond right away. Instead she just stared at him intently, a smile slowly starting to spread across her face. A smile that reached all the way up to her warm brown eyes and made them sparkle with mischief. "Well we'll just have to do something about that now. Won't we?"

Finn looked up at her and saw her smile, his own smile suddenly reflecting hers when he realized exactly what she had in mind.

"Do something about what?" Mike asked. Tina and Finn ignored him.

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><p><strong>Reviews are greatly appreciated. :)<strong>


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